


A quest to non-existence

by killing_kurare



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Depressing, Gen, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 15:05:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7227319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killing_kurare/pseuds/killing_kurare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ariel is to blame for the downfall of her family. She can't live with the guilt anymore, so she's attending one last journey to a place a mermaid can die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A quest to non-existence

**AN:** Title by Epica, "Sensorium"

 **Prompts:** [](http://puzzleprompts.livejournal.com/profile)[**puzzleprompts**](http://puzzleprompts.livejournal.com/) all the prompts for June: ( **Power Hour:** Magical Lake, **Creature Feature:** Mermaid, **Whats My Line?:** Lost Boy by Ruth B - _"Nowhere to go and no place to call home"_ , **Adulting Sucks!:** Looking back on one's past with questions and/or regrets, **Sports and Recc:** Dancing, **Geology Rocks:** Volcano, **Random Descriptor:** Crunchy, **Random Object:** Cutting stones)

 

 

Ariel keeps swimming though her fin hurts as never before in her life. She’s been traveling without resting for more weeks than she can count, but that pain is nothing compared to the hurt that torments her soul. She looks around and sees nothing but sand and rocks. This is nothing like her home, nothing like the part of the ocean called Atlantica. Here are no colors, no friendly fish or other mermaids. She’s all alone. And though she’d love to go back home, she knows she can’t.  
And there is no one to blame but herself.  
It was only because of her that Ursula got hold of her father’s trident, of its power that doomed them all.  
A tear finds its way into the water, adds just more salt to the ocean.  
Her father - dead. Her sisters - dead. Her people - enslaved. And all because she wanted to find her true love, selfish and egoistic. She thinks back to how it all started, what a great time she had with Eric as a human, how they danced to wonderful music, looked into each other’s eyes …  
She remembers the almost-kiss that could’ve given back her voice.  
But Eric fell in love with someone else, forgot about Ariel. Her time was up and the sea-witch came to claim what Ariel had promised.  
She wanted to stick to the contract, but her father did not. Oh no, he had traded his power for Ariel’s life. In the end it hadn’t done any good. Of course Ursula took advantage of that.  
‘Oh, if only I had died, nothing of all this would’ve happened,’ she thinks bitterly and swims a little faster. No, she has to get rid of the guilt, cannot bear it anymore. Why should she keep on living if her family is dead, if her home is destroyed and there is nothing left for her?  
She has nowhere to go and no place to call home. So the mermaid has decided to end it all. But it is not easy for a mermaid to die. It is almost impossible if not for magic. She has travelled for weeks, hoping to find the place that can provide what she is yearning for.  
She had heard of a magical lake with poisoned water in a place where no lake should be able to exist. A place of fire, of toxic air and black sharp rocks.  
A volcano.  
There were only rumors of its existence, of its location, but Ariel has nowhere else to go, so why not try and find it?  
And after a few more days the water gets hotter, it’s not easy to breathe anymore and Ariel thinks she’s close. She simply has to be.

She swims through this water that reddens her skin with heat and does not halt until she reaches some kind of shore. The air is dry and hot, even hotter than the water, and it smells of something unpleasant Ariel doesn’t know. There is ash that floats around and makes her cough, but still she starts to crawl out of the water and onto the shore. It doesn’t consist of warm and soft sand like she’s used to, but of rocks, big and small, and as she drags her weight the stones cut into her flesh, make her bleed and hurt even more. Ariel gasps but doesn’t stop as the rocks also dig into her fin, she just concentrates on the crunchy noise that proves she's still moving forward. Surely she’s leaving a bloody trail by now, but she won’t look back nor does she care.  
She gets used to the pain and makes herself search for the lake. She’s come so far, everything is just as described, so she has to be in the right place.  
Her coughs are getting drier and her lungs hurt. She’s dirty and her body screams for the freshness of water.

At times the earth rumbles and new smoke and ash erupt from the top of the volcano, but Ariel only laughs soundlessly as she reaches another small hill and sees a lake in the valley below.  
It has to be the magical lake, because how else could the water look so clean and fresh and inviting when the air is grey and polluted?  
With the last strength she possesses Ariel makes herself roll down the hill and to the edge of the water.  
She crawls forward and looks into the lake, takes in the reflection of herself and starts to cry. Her hair is felted, her face dirty with teary streaks on the skin and her eyes red without any brilliance. She is but a shadow of her old self, which only makes it easier for her.  
She reaches out and sticks a hand into the lake, her bloody dirty bruised hand, but as soon as the water surrounds her fingers, the pain subsides and her wounds are healed.  
Ariel frowns and cries harder, silent sobs shake her body. Wasn’t this lake supposed to take her life? Why is it making it better?  
But then she tries to move her fingers … and finds she can’t. There’s no feeling left in her hand, nothing at all, and the smile returns.  
She takes a deep breath, full of relief, and closes her eyes before rolling her whole body into the water. The coolness tends to her wounds as she sinks down and down and further down.  
It tastes funny, a little foul, but already she feels drowsy and her eyes get heavy.  
‘That’s it,’ she thinks and smiles. ‘It’s finally over. Father, I’m coming home.’  
She opens her mouth to sing, but nothing except a few bubbles escape her lips, and she watches them ascend to the far-away surface before the magic of the lake embraces her, leaves her unable to breath and guides Ariel into sweet oblivion. By the time she hits the ground, her senses are already gone and a happy smile is plastered on her lifeless lips.


End file.
